William w



W. W. BIRNSTOCK,

BOTTLE CRATE.

v APPLICATION FILED SEPT.22. 191's.

Patented Dec. 9, 1919.

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Gum a UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM w. BIaNsTocrgor YORK, PENNsYLvnNIA,,AssIeNoR TonnNcH & DROMGOLD7 COMPANY, or YORK, PENNSYLVANIA.

BOTTLE-CRATE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM Brims'roox, of York, in the county of Yorkand kind of bottle-crate which is the subject of Letters Patent to A. L.Foreman No. 1.050523 of January 21, 1913, having a partition structurecomposed of longitudinal and transverse twisted flat metal stripsdisposed to prevent contacting horizontal portions at the intersectionsand vertical portions between said intersections, together with a bottlesupporting grid below the partition structure composed of longitudinalwires extending between and attached to the ends of the crate inposition to support the bottles, the bottoms'of which rest on them.

In a crate of this character the longitrt dinal bottom grid wires whichextend between the ends of the crate are of considerable length; andeven if stretched taut when first put in place, are liable sooner orlater to stretch, so that under the weight of the'bottles which theysustain, they will sag and spread apart, at times SO'WldQlY apart as topermit the bottles which they are supposed to sustain to slip betweenthem and drop from open bottomed crates.

My improvement is designed to remedy this defect, and it consists of asnnple, inexpensive, readily applied and effective device for thepurpose, which will first be de scribed in connection with theaccompanying drawings, forming part of this specification and will thenbe more particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings- Figure 1 is a transverse vertical section of a bottlecrate embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan on line -2-2 Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan and Fig. l is a section illustrating a mod fication ofthe cross bar member for preventing the spreading of the grid wires.

The with which my improvement is illustrated in the drawing, and whichis supposed to be adapted to contain a dozen bottles, is slmilar to thatshown and described in the Foreman Patent #1,050,823, hereinbeforementioned,

the partition member consisting of longitubottle-crate structure inconnection Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Dec 9, 1919,Application filed September 22, 1919. Serial No. 325,302. i V

dinal and transverse twistedflatmetal intersecting strips beingindicated by the reference characters 11 and 12 respectively and thebottom bottle supporting grid consisting of a wire?) laced back andforth between and secured to opposite-ends of the crateall as shown anddescribed in said Foreman patent. Of course the wires forming the gridmay be applied and secured to the ends of the crate'between which theyextend in any other suitable or preferred way. Thus far there is nothingnew in the crate.

About midway of the length of the wire grid is placed a distance andwire-retaining piece, consisting of a stiff metallic strip a,

which extends crosswise of the grid from I side to side of the cratebeing secured tightly to said sides in any suitable or preferred wayinthis instance by having its ends inserted in recesses formed for itsreception in said sides, and there held in place by means of nailsdriven from the bottom edge of the sides up through perforations in theends of the strip a, as indicated in dotted lines at b. The distancepiece a is stretched below and crosswise of the grid wires, and isformed with transverse grooves 0 at intervals apart corresponding to theintervals between the grid wlres, and so 10- cated'as to be 1n allnementwith the grid .wires and to serve asbearings in which the grid wires arereceived, and by which they are both upheld, and prevented fromspreading apart or lateral displacement. To prevent the grid wires fromrising out'of their seats in the distance piece, I can conven I ientlyuse a cover strip at applied from above the grid wires on to the face ofthe distance piece a, andserving to prevent vertical. dis placement ofthe grid wires as well as to increase the stiffness of the distancepiece. 7

The cover strip cl can be soldered or otherwise suitably secured to thedistance piece at intervals in 1ts length between the grid wires.

1 and 2, I can employ as a wire-retaining and distance piece a singlemetal stripe, from which is punched out, at intervals apart throughoutits length, corresponding to the intervals which separate the grooves 0in the strip a Figs. 1 and 2, tongues 7 which are bent down through theholesthus formed to extend below the under face of the strip. The strip6 is applied to and In lieu of the construction shown in Figs.

crosswise of the grid wires from above the same, and the downwardlyextending tongues are bent upward and around the wires which adjoin themas indicated in Figs. 3 and 4, so as to receive and hold them quite asfirmly as they are held in the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Thetongues take the place and do tie work of the grooves 0 in Figs. 1, 2,and the strip (3 serves the same purpose as the two strips (Z, in thelast named figures.

It will be understood that instead of using only one wire-retaining anddistance piece, two or more may be employed as preferred or as calledfor by circumstances.

Having described my improvement what I claim herein as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is as follows:

In a bottle crate, the combination with the wooden body of the crate andthe partition structure therein for receiving individual bottles, of abottle supporting wire grid beneath said partition structure, the wiremembers'of which extend between and are attached to the ends of thecrate in position to form a support upon which the bottoms of thebottles contained in the inclividual cells of the partition structurewill rest, and a combined wire-retaining and distance piece consistingof a stiff metal strip extending crosswise of the grid, and secured atits ends to the sides of the crate, and individual means on said stripsto receive and engage their respective grid wires, and retain them fromvertical or lateral displace- 11'1611l3, substantially as and for thepurposes hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof I affiX my signature.

WILLIAM W. BIRNSTOCK.

